U.S. Deports Alleged Former Guatemalan Soldier Wanted For 1982 Massacre

Today in Latin America

Top Story — The U.S. government deported Tuesday a Guatemalan man who allegedly participated in a 1982 massacre that left 162 people dead in the Central American nation’s decades-long civil war. Pimentel Rios, who was working as a maintenance worker in California at the time of his detainment, was flown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Guatemala where he was turned over to authorities to face charges in the December 1982 killings of men, women and children in the village of Las Dos Erres. The former soldier was allegedly a member of an elite army unit known as the Kaibiles, who hunted down supposed leftist guerrillas. Detained in 2010, a judge ruled this May that he could be extradited for his suspected involvement in the extra-judicial killings. Rios is one of four former Guatemalan military officers linked to the killings who have been arrested. “For the families who lost loved ones at Dos Erres, justice has been a long time coming, but they can take consolation in the fact that those responsible for this tragedy are now being held accountable for their crimes,” said ICE director John Morton.

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